Carmen Lima still remembers how isolated she felt when she arrived in the United States more than 15 years ago.

She couldn’t speak English. People looked different and didn’t speak Spanish. She stuck with other immigrants, who at least understood what she was going through.

“When I came here, no one helped each other,” Lima said recently. “It was hard to understand the language and the system and how it works.”

Lima, 35, of Apple Valley, now helps other recent arrivals find resources through 360 Communities’ Virtual Immigrant Resource Center, a grid of volunteers, most of whom live in the communities being served.

The term “virtual” is meant to convey that there is no building associated with the center. Its base is its people.

The program helps immigrants acclimate to life here by finding others within their communities to act as mentors. After the mentors undergo training and come to be known as resources, they, in turn, choose other people to train. Program leaders try to find mentors who belong to groups or live at sites where new immigrants naturally congregate — like churches or certain apartment buildings.

The result is a web of volunteers who can reach immigrants in ways most nonprofits can’t, said Jeff Mortensen, senior director of innovation at 360 Communities (formerly known as the Community Action Council).

“A lot of times, (volunteers are) helping with things we take for granted,” Mortensen said. “For example, ‘How do I get a driver’s license?’ ”

The Mexico-born Lima is a community leader in the program. She chooses guides, other immigrants who can learn from her. She is a member of the Catholic Latino congregation at Church of the Risen Savior in Burnsville, one of the sites program leaders target.

The program started about a year ago in the Hispanic community, said Meg Hesch, coordinator for 360 Communities’ New American Services.

The program has been implemented at eight sites — seven of them Hispanic and one Somali — in Eagan, Apple Valley and Burnsville. Leaders hope to expand the program into other Dakota County cities and cultural groups.

But making inroads takes time.

“Services like this have to be driven by the community,” Mortensen said. “How do they want this thing to work? And how do we integrate it into what they are already doing?”

Lima said immigrants in her church group were at first wary of the program.

“It was a battle getting started,” Lima said. “When you can’t show people a model that is working anywhere, it’s hard to get them to join in.”

But eventually, through her own outreach and a series of informal talks, or charlas, about things like low-cost health care and college options, community members began to warm to the idea.

Now, Lima said, she’s bombarded with questions after each church service.

“People are always asking me questions: ‘How do I sell my house?’ ‘What are the immigration laws?’ ” Lima said. “People even call me at home for advice.”

At a recent event at Risen Savior, a representative from the U.S. Internal Revenue Service was teaching immigrants about how to file taxes, even if they are undocumented.

Many don’t realize that one of the criteria for citizenship is whether an immigrant has filed taxes, Hesch said. And the IRS is not going to deport people for doing so.

“And many people don’t realize they may even get a refund,” Hesch said.

The turnout at that event, however, was not as high as at a previous tax information event. Hesch and Lima speculated that was because the last time, they advertised the session without using the term IRS.

“People hear ‘IRS,’ and they think government,” Hesch said. “It can be scary when you’re undocumented.”

But, Hesch explained, the counselor from the IRS is forbidden from contacting immigration authorities.

Lima has recently enlisted several guides, including Victor Torres, 29, to help her mentor others.

Torres, who came to America 10 years ago, listened intently to the tax presentation.

“I have so many questions about this,” Torres said.

Torres said that since people have learned of his new role, he has been answering co-workers’ questions at his job at Uponor, a heating and cooling systems manufacturer in Apple Valley. He said if he doesn’t know the answers to queries about such things as finding health care, he knows whom to ask.

“You don’t have to be an expert to participate,” Hesch said. “That’s what I love about this system.”

Torres wants his fellow immigrants to know that knowledge can help them get ahead in their adopted country.

“Right now, I see (the volunteers) have so much power,” Torres said. “In one day, in five minutes, we can change people’s lives.”

Jessica Fleming can be reached at 651-228-5435.

TO LEARN MORE

For information on volunteering or using Virtual Immigrant Resource Center services, call 360 Communities at 952-985-5300.

Jess Fleming has been with the Pioneer Press since 1999, and has been covering the Eat beat since 2012. She is an adventurous eater, cook and gardener, but will only grow something she can eat. She is a graduate of the journalism school at the University of Minnesota and a native of Eastern Wisconsin, where she grew up eating good brats, good cheese and fresh vegetables from her dad’s garden.

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